Out There is a critical survey of 50 key architectural firms across America's regional cities and small towns. These practitioners operate at every scale and with all building types, weaving a rich architectural tapestry that reflects the breadth and diversity of the American landscape.
Each day, architects across the United States are busy planning and constructing individual homes, public buildings, and civic spaces rooted in local culture and context. Yet, to many, the perception prevails that American architecture is driven largely by the traditional centres of power on the East and West coasts.
Out There challenges that notion, spotlighting practices throughout the whole of the US that are deeply grounded in place and community. What unites the firms featured in this volume is a commitment to architecture's civic, social, and environmental responsibilities. Many prioritize sustainability, adaptive reuse, housing, and social justice. Even in an increasingly homogenized, hyper-connected world, these architects remain
locally focused.
The book begins with a foreword by Marlon Blackwell, recipient of the 2020 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, and an introduction by Robert Ivy, former editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. Essays by Cathleen McGuigan, also a former chief editor of Architectural Record, and Peter MacKeith, Dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture in Fayetteville, AR, consider, respectively, key figures in the rise of architectural regionalism in the United States over recent decades, and contemporary regional architecture in other countries. The book's main section profiles 50 US practices and 170 projects, including Observation Studio (Oregon), Modus Studio (Arkansas), Rand Elliott Architects (Oklahoma), Ren�e del Gaudio Architecture (Colorado), Salmela Architect (Minnesota), and Duvall Decker (Mississippi), recipient of the 2026 AIA Architecture Firm Award. The texts explore the ethos and design philosophy of each firm, as well as selected projects from the last ten years.
Out There presents a varied, vibrant picture of architectural excellence anchored in local culture, geography, and community needs all across the US. It affirms a timeless truth: where we work profoundly influences what we create. Ultimately, architecture remains inseparable from place.
- A definitive and authoritative survey of contemporary American regional architecture
- Features 170 projects by 50 practices, all fully illustrated with over 750 photographs and plans
- A vital resource for architects, design professionals, urban planners, academics, and anyone interested in the future of architecture across America
Blackwell, Marlon: - Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, is a practicing architect in Fayetteville, AR, and the E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas. Blackwell is a lifetime member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal, a 2019 Resident Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and a 2014 United States Artists Ford Fellow. Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architects, has received significant recognition, including the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture.
Ivy, Robert: - Robert Ivy, FAIA, lives in Columbus, MS, and is an author, editor, and architect, and served until recently as CEO of the American Institute of Architects. For more than 14 years, he was Editor-in-Chief of one of the world's most widely disseminated architectural publications, Architectural Record. His own writing encompassed nearly 150 monthly editorials, interviews with leading figures in the architectural culture, and major stories. His book Fay Jones: Architect (2001) was cited for the "highest standards of scholarship, design, and production." He has also served three times as the US Commissioner for the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Mackeith, Peter: - Peter MacKeith lives in Fayetteville, AR, and is Dean and Professor of Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, and a nationally recognized design educator and administrator. He is an ACSA Distinguished Professor, a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, and a Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland. He is the author or editor of 14 books, most recently Radical Practice: The Work of Marlon Blackwell Architects (2022), and has served as editor of Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal and SOM Journal. MacKeith has led, organized, and curated exhibitions of the vitality of contemporary architecture in the Nordic region and the American South, including A South Forty: Contemporary Architecture in the American South, an ongoing project that presents and supports emerging and accomplished practices across the region, scheduled for the National Building Museum in 2025. He is the co-commissioner of the US Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.
McGuigan, Cathleen: - Cathleen McGuigan is a New York-based critic and editor and was formerly the architecture and arts editor of Newsweek. She succeeded Robert Ivy as Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Record, which she ran for a dozen years, launching such programs as the Women in Architecture Awards. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and Rolling Stone, among many other periodicals. She has been honored as a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and as a Poynter Fellow at Yale. She sits on the board of trustees at the Skyscraper Museum in New York.
